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The Exorbitant Cost of Anti-Immigrant Propaganda
The costs extend far beyond dollar amounts
Anti-immigrant propaganda has reached levels not seen since the internment of Japanese people in 1942 and the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. While this didn’t start with Donald Trump announcing his run for president in 2015, he did take it further than at any other time in modern history. Now, during his second term, the disinformation and lies are akin to the worst racism ever seen in the United States. His executive orders highlight how bad it is.
Conversations about the indefinite detention of migrants in private prisons — who are only required to pay as little as $1 per day and often don’t pay anything at all — are drawing connections to the history of enslavement and indentured servitude. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids are conjuring visions of slave patrols and comparisons to Operation Wetback when Mexicans were forcibly deported to Mexico, millions of which were U.S. citizens.
While there is plenty of blame to go around for the anti-immigrant fervor that includes not just Trump, but lawmakers and the news media, the propaganda being put out by high-ranking government officials through various agencies is not only expensive but could have dire impacts on society overall as the Department of Homeland…
